Late life, not less life
Editor's note: Bri McIntosh is senior director at Human8.
What comes to mind when you think of a person in their 70s? You might see someone with wrinkles and grey hair who is unsteady on their feet and unsure with their words. They are perhaps viewed as someone in the autumn of their lives, with declining capabilities. In some ways, it’s a very typical way to think of someone in later life because our cultural and societal reference points do little to refute it. Indeed, we only need to watch daytime TV to see many commercials playing back a very specific picture of older age.
And yet, behind this particular personification of older age lies a massively diverse spectrum of life experiences and lived realities. Unfortunately, these are often overshadowed by the two dominant narratives that shape our perceptions of those aged 65 and over. The first narrative is the romanticized view of older age where (white, heterosexual) couples are often depicted (sometimes in soft focus) gently smiling and enjoying the retired life. The second is the catastrophized view of older age, portraying later life through a narrative of “helplessness” – such as struggling to afford care, being vulnerable to fraud or freezing due to an inability to heat their homes. While these situations do occur, they are only two extremes of the exceptionally varied spectrum of life. With more people in the U.S. and U.K. living to 90 than ever before, we risk underestimating these older audiences and remaining partially sighted to the potential opportunities that these older age groups bring with them.
We recently worked with a leading U.K. financial services provider to get up close and personal with later-lifers to understand what matters to them, where unmet needs exist and how they perceive the world around them. This article focuses on busting some of the persistent stereotypes that exist around this audience and, in doing so, seeks to highlight the commercial opportunities that these large and diverse audiences offer.
Age and the essentialist problem
Before we get into myth-busting, we need to address the problem of age as an “othering” differentiator of human behavior. This isn’t to say that it doesn’t matter – it clearly plays a key role in lived experiences. However, if we are to take later-lifers seriously, then this age-on-a-page segmentation should be seen more as an influencing, rather than a determining, factor in how we understand these audiences. Essentializing a group of people by a single characteristic removes the nuances, complexities and differences that underpin their lives, thereby removing the potential that exists with them. You wouldn’t group together a 10-year-old and 40-year-old in a segmentation, yet “65+” seems fair game for such treatment.
Age beyond the biological
Let’s start by looking at how people that fall under the broad spectrum of “later life” see themselves. Herein lies the first stereotype to bust. Someone’s biological age does not dictate their perceived age. While “not being the age you feel” risks falling into cliché territory, there is actually more to this when it comes to later-lifers. In our work with the U.K. financial provider, we came across this age “plurality” in various guises and for the purposes of this article we’ll focus in on two – those who experience age tension and those who act based on their subjective age. For those experiencing age tension, there is often frustration that their biological bodies are preventing them from living the way they feel. They are sound of mind and years younger in spirit but feel unseen by brands because assumptions and judgements have already been made based on their problems.
“You think we all listen to Frank Sinatra but don’t forget our generation gave you Pink Floyd.”
Equally, there are those defying their chronological age and continuing the life they always have. For these later-lifers, ages 65 and beyond are markers on a page rather than inhibitors to living the lives they are choosing to live.
“When people stand up for me on the bus or say ‘Ahh bless’ when they talk to me in supermarkets, I always wonder why they are treating me like an old person!”
Take for instance some of those we met during our research: Geoff who, at 92, is still running half marathons and going to the gym three times a week; Ellen who, at 73, is seen as the tech guru among both her peers and family; or Cath who, at 76, still loves dyeing her hair and experimenting with new fashions.
“I'm 76 and have never felt my age. People are kind enough to tell me that I don't look my age either. I have found that the best thing about aging is, the older I get, the less I care what people think of the way I dress or style my hair (which I dyed shocking pink a while ago).”
Yet, when asked, all felt invisible to the brands they continue to engage with. This may be due to the presumption that brands don’t “get anything out of” paying attention to them or that they are “yesterday’s news.” Regardless, there is a sense that the brand relationship is far from reciprocal. The stories – and the potential opportunities these uncover – are often silenced at the expense of age-based stereotyping.
Second life, not end of life
A further stereotype that continues to linger around perceptions of later life is that, once people leave the labor market at retirement (a term in itself that is becoming increasingly less accurate), they all follow, for want of a better way of phrasing it, a singular downward trajectory. This is situated on the right tail of the productive human bell curve, alongside all the associations this brings, e.g. “settling in,” “taking life at a slower pace,” “easing up.” This stereotype held little water among the later lifers we spoke to.
The reality is that later life can be just as disruptive or transformative as any other adult age. The non-linear lifestyles that are increasingly common among Gen X, Gen Z or Millennials are becoming a reality for those aged 65 and above. Across our research, we’ve met couples in their 70s who have sold their home to travel and taken house-sitting roles for others to accommodate themselves in their downtime; those who have got divorced and remarried in their supposed twilight years or those that have undertaken an “unretirement” career switch. We’ve also met others in less fortunate circumstances who are contemplating returning to rental accommodation if they need to sell their homes for later life care, managing the bereavement of their adult children who have passed before them or have themselves become divorced and had to readjust to single life in their later years.
These disruptive life moments, whether positive or negative, bring with them a set of potentially unmet needs. Yet, few feel there was much in the way of viable solutions provided by brands or services that were aimed at “people like them,” and in some cases, due to their age-on-a-page, doors were closed in their face. Let’s take Arin as an example. Arin is a keen traveller who recently aged into his 70s. Like many in his age cohort, life has given him some underlying health conditions but ones he feels fully in control of managing. Yet, at the turn of a clock minute, his insurance provider withdrew this benefit from his financial package for no other reason than turning 70.
Positively, a few brands seem to be tuning in to the person, rather than the age of customers. For example, Co-op Insurance is currently running a TV ad that explicitly references age, underlying conditions and risky holiday choices being no barrier to its insurance offer. Product innovations like these are only possible when brands tune in and listen to the person beyond the stereotype. Given that those aged 75+ are predicted to add 2% of U.K. GDP by 2040, the opportunity is clearly there to be embraced.
Order doesn’t come with age
The final stereotype to combat is the misconception that with age comes life order. Not all people who enter their later years have their lives in order. As children of those in their later years, we might assume that because these are our parents, that they’ve got life admin sorted and a plan in place to deal with life when it needs fixing. However, getting closer with those in later life shows that being prepared is far from universal. While most of the later-lifers we speak to say they’ve got a will in place, beyond this, things become much patchier. Tasks like setting up power of attorney, plans for future care provision or even death administration remain outstanding for many of those we spoke with.
There are various reasons at play here. Don’t forget the cognitive dissonance mentioned above. Like the rest of us, many later-lifers are sidelining these duties – when they become more relevant, when they feel older. Some later-lifers see these tasks as being for when they begin to feel older. It becomes a job for tomorrow, an action that can wait until it is triggered by a moment or life event. In these cases, the biological realities of life play second fiddle to the subjective perception of self. In contrast, others have made deliberate choices based on life experiences rather than rational pragmatism. Gerry refuses to get power of attorney (POA) in place because when his partner’s mother passed away, the POA outcome pulled apart his family, as he has no desire for that outcome to repeat itself. Mike hasn’t done any planning for when he passes because in his words “I won’t be here, it’s someone else’s problem to deal with.” Whether Mike genuinely believes this or uses it as a way to avoid acknowledging these financial limitations is up for debate.
Unmet opportunities
The above shouldn’t come as a surprise because as humans, we only act when we feel like it. That does not change with age. There is no playbook for later life, which opens up a territory of unmet (or even unknown) opportunities for brands and organizations. Yet until the real stories of later-lifers are listened to, and not dictated by stereotypes, these audiences will continue to be underestimated and a lose-lose situation for all parties. We can, and should be, better when it comes to how we view later life, so let’s get on with it.